You can almost put the Blazer Blahs on the calendar. It’s that time of year when the collective preseason enthusiasm about Yang Hansen being the second coming of Nikola Jokic, the possibilities of year-three-Scoot
tutored by Jrue and Dame, the whispers about “training camp Shaedon,” the hopes for a well-conditioned Donovan Clingan, the optimism about a new coach, about ball movement, about playing with passion after so many tank seasons and the rise of Deni freaking Avdija slowly one-by-one are beaten down by sunless days, early sunsets and an atmospheric river of injuries and losses.
Denial can make it hard to note when the Blahs begin. Embracing reality doesn’t come easily when you’re just trying to survive the weather with positive self talk and you’ve got a chronic case of Blazermania. It’s easy to chalk up a few losses to injury. You might have told yourself that young teams struggle to finish games or that young coaches take a little time to settle in. Or, that man, they just need to get healthy.
So, I could feel the doubts brewing before I allowed myself to put them into words, but others didn’t hold back. I met a group of friends at Besaw’s for breakfast last weekend. I was still congratulating myself on wedging the family van into a parking spot the size of a 1970s Honda Civic when my buddy Chris from Bend stepped out of the truck in front of me. Before I could feed the Parking Kitty, he was in my ear.
“Man, I’ve been wanting to talk to you about the Blazers,” he said. “I’m having a hard time getting into it. They’re all injured. No one can make a three. They don’t have a superstar. And, they don’t win games. I mean, why should I care?”
Five nights later, the beleaguered Blazers were beaten down, losing by 23 points to hapless New Orleans on Thursday night. The injury ravaged team took the court without any point guards or centers. Meanwhile, the Pelicans’ Bryce McGowens (who played 13 games for the Blazers last year) finished with 23 points. He was perfect from behind the arc, making all five three-point attempts.
It was just the Pelicans’ fourth win of the season. It was Portland’s 11th loss in its last 14 games. And, it could no longer be denied that the mid-season ebb in Blazermania officially arrived early this year.
I wasn’t alone in this realization. Mid-third-quarter, my phone started buzzing with texts from Nick in Arizona. He came in hot.
“FIRE CRONIN.”
I didn’t have time to reply before the phone buzzed again. Nick continued: “I can’t believe [Jody Allen] extended [Cronin’s] contract on her way out the door. What, we gotta lock him down cuz the rest of the league is just salivating over a GM that has never composed a playoff worthy roster?”
Perhaps Nick was unaware that the Blazers front office received 1.5 votes in a recent poll ranking NBA executives. Those one-and-a-half voters registered positive sentiment. The author explaining the poll waxed poetic over the development of Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija.
I guess the poll is a good sign if you’re Cronin. It’s an improvement over two earlier polls which ranked the Blazers’ front office near the bottom of the league.
But, Blazers fans have reason to expect more. On July 22, Cronin told reporters “It’s winning time now for the Trail Blazers.”
The realization has now set in that whether this team is healthy or not, the GM has surrounded Avdija and Camara with a group that is not constructed to win.
Reese Kunz of The Rip City Project also pins the onus of change on Cronin. “Things should eventually look better once Jrue Holiday, Scoot Henderson, and others return. But there’s a growing frustration surrounding this Blazers team, as it appears they don’t have enough to show after four long rebuilding years.”
Help for Avdija and Camara could come at the trade deadline on February fifth. But the next question Nick from Arizona texted me pointed to a more significant date on the horizon.
He wrote, “When will the ownership change be finalized?”
Nothing would cure the Blazer Blahs like winning. Jody Allen’s tenure was marked by a lack of accountability. She extended both Chauncey Billups and Cronin’s contracts despite what is now a 117-211 win-loss record under Cronin. While he does couple of savvy trade acquisitions on his resume, the GM has acquired no breakout stars in the draft lottery.
Not much has been reported about prospective Blazers governor, Tom Dundon, in local media.
We do know he acquired the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes when the team had missed the playoffs for nine consecutive years. He hired a new GM and a new coach. Dundon created a culture of success that turned the team from a doormat into a Stanley Cup champion.
He did it with shrewd investments in his players, gutting other parts of the operation in the process.
After the 2018 season, Dundon reportedly asked longtime radio announcer Chuck Kaiton to take an 80% pay cut to stay with the organization following the expiration of his contract. When he declined, Dundon decided to simply simulcast the audio of the team’s television broadcast on the radio, something that several other NHL teams have also adopted.
“I want to put all the money on the ice,” Dundon told a local sports radio show when the organization split with Kaiton.
I love the Blazer’s broadcast team as much as the next guy, but as a Blazer fan dying of thirst in the desert of Jody Allen ambivalence, I am thrilled by the prospect of an organizational leader willing to do whatever it takes to win.
So I say to Chris in Bend and Nick in Arizona and Blazer Fans wherever you may be, I feel you. The Blazer Blahs are hitting hard this year: not because the team is young, or injured, or losing. Those are familiar storms. This year feels darker because fans feel the limits of their patience with the team’s leadership.
Portland has lived through owner indifference and lack of a clear strategy for four long seasons, waiting for a direction, a leader off the court who can assemble a winning group on the court.
Maybe that arrives with healthier players. Maybe it arrives in February. Or maybe it arrives when the keys to the franchise finally change hands. Until then, Rip City, do what you always do: bundle up, lean into the gloom, and keep watching, waiting for the moment when the clouds break and the team gives you reason to cheer again. With a lot of luck, we may live to see another championship in Rip City.
